NRA board member speaks out

Updated
May 06, 2013 08:48:00

In Houston Texas, the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association is wrapping up after three days of uncompromising speeches that have shocked supporters of gun control, but fired up rank and file members of the NRA. AM speaks to one of the NRA's 76 media-shy board members, Todd J Rathner.

TONY EASTLEY: In Houston Texas, the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association is wrapping up after three days of uncompromising speeches that have shocked supporters of gun control, but fired up rank and file members of the NRA.

Two of the favourite targets of speakers have been the so-called Washington elites, and the media.

Getting access to any of the NRA's 76 media-shy board members isn't easy but when one of them, Todd J Rathner, briefly left the conference to go the bank, he stopped to speak with our North America Correspondent, Ben Knight.

BEN KNIGHT: The NRA seems to be taking an all or nothing approach that if you allow something like expanded background checks then it opens the door to the guns being taken away.

TODD J RATHNER: Sure, yeah because what I've been saying all along to people is that in order to have universal background checks - what they call universal background checks - you've got to have registration, and you need universal registration and registration leads to confiscation.

BEN KNIGHT: You believe that the government in the United States would have the ability, the political ability to remove guns from Americans?

TODD J RATHNER: You know I don't know, that's a really good question, I don't know the truth...

BEN KNIGHT: But that's the core of it isn't it?

TODD J RATHNER: Well...

BEN KNIGHT: That's what everyone says that they are afraid of, that's why they will not accept any change, even to something like background checks.

TODD J RATHNER: But we won't know unless there is registration and so, and so we're not willing to let it get to that point. And I think that's important because we do believe that registration will ultimately lead to confiscation because if they know where the guns are they can come and take them.

BEN KNIGHT: I was just inside listening to Wayne LaPierre and the language that's being used is quite interesting. This is almost a direct quote, "The terrorist is out there, the murderer is out there, the rapist is out there, and the only thing that will keep you safe is your gun." That's language that's designed to frighten people isn't it?

TODD J RATHNER: That's reality. Did you notice the bombing in Boston? Did you notice the guys running around in a car all over Boston throwing bombs out the window and people being locked in their homes? It's a very American tradition to take care of yourself. We don't depend on government to take care of us and, you know, the more that we allow government to take care of us, the more we become a slave to government.

BEN KNIGHT: Doesn't sound a little paranoid?

TODD J RATHNER: No, no you don't have to be paranoid when you're armed. There's nothing to worry about.

BEN KNIGHT: There seems to be this subtext, which is if people want to keep their weapons because they are afraid of a tyrannical government. Now if you take that to its extension, they fear that they need their weapons to protect themselves from their own government. Do you think that's realistic?

TODD J RATHNER: Well, you know, I mean, I think in a small way, I think that when you look at situations during Hurricane Katrina, where the police basically abandoned their posts and left people to fend for themselves, we take care of ourselves and we defend ourselves and we don't trust the government to take care of us. Why? Because the government can't be trusted.

BEN KNIGHT: Obviously at nauseam we've been hearing the second amendment quoted over the past couple of days, which is the right of the citizen to bear arms shall not be infringed. The first part is always left out and it's also left out when it's written up on the wall at the NRA store inside, the first part about the well regulated militia.

TODD J RATHNER: No I don't think that's true. I've seen it-

BEN KNIGHT: It's in there, it's written on the wall...

TODD J RATHNER: I've seen it in there...

BEN KNIGHT: It's not up there.

TODD J RATHNER: You know it's, you know it's probably the most important part of it. But what well regulated meant 200 years ago is different than the way you're interpreting it. What a well regulated militia meant was well trained, people that could handle their fire arms, people that knew what they were doing.

BEN KNIGHT: That's changing the meaning of the term isn't it? I mean regulated is regulated.